Well, I think it's safe to say that the order came down from the-great-eye-worshipped-by-the-fearful, and commanded reddit to fall into step with the rest of the mainstream media.

In addition to the censorship enacted on /r/politics as seen in the video above, this post [original cached] was recently made (and subsequently removed in a staggering show of cowardice) to /r/worldnews to let us know that news of SOPA/ACTA/PIPA/CISPA would no longer be tolerated on that sub. Nor would news of the secret preparations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership be allowed. The broken logic behind this, delivered in one voice by various shills upon challenge, is this: "Once the american initiative to collar, monitor and completely monetize the (global) internet becomes a reality, then it will become world news. Until then, it's US politics, which of course you can freely post to any of our other (also censored) subs (if you can get it seen among all the cat pictures)." I guess someone got tired of renaming their little draconian pet projects.

From posting links to /r/worldnews and a few other subs about the TPP a few months ago, I know that this is simply the visible part of reddit's censorship. During that time a few months ago, before TPP-related links were allowed to make it to the front page of any sub, I noticed that the posts relating to TPP were simply disappeared. You could still find it via the URL, but in the sub's "new" list, and even in searches, the TPP links were simply not there to be seen or upvoted.

The masks are coming off. Presidents go on national teevee and simply lie to the public, knowing that everyone knows they're lying, knowing that they are completely opposing the heartfelt lies they made months ago that allowed them to keep their skins for another quarter. It seems they have forgotten which hand feeds them. It seems they haven't counted how many people they left with nothing to lose. Jokes about the stupidity of politicians and their attending co-parasites are everyday, and yet this show of it is unbelievable. Impressive, even. The novelty will soon wear off.

We have the power. The people who possess of consciousness have the ability to do just about anything, once we have decided on it. Many with this ability have not yet awakened. It seems that maybe the ride on the gravy train got to be too smooth, and many of its occupants decided it was time for the wheels to come off. I won't argue with them, but thanks for the help.

Not that I would turn down a helping hand, but call me deeply sceptical. I mean, fuck. All you have to do is look at how good the mainstream media in general has been at keeping anything resembling the truth from appearing on the airwaves. Most people have never heard of the demolition of building seven, and the ones that have sure as shit didn't hear about it from cnn. The empire has been invading countries with impunity, taking over governments, seeding mcdonalds and bombing families with unmanned drones, and at the same time what most MSM adherents are worried about are the fucking rhinos, patting themselves on the back for their activism, as sent from their iphone. And then some Jesus-looking actor appears on the very same babble box and calls for revolution. The whole thing stinks.

I won't turn down the man's help in spreading awareness, but it should end there and it's obvious that it's not meant to. Already he's being held up as an icon. The things he said, those that I have heard, are elementary truths. Frankly, if what he said is news to anyone, in 2013, I'm not much interested in hearing their solution to global warming and saving the rhino, which are likely to be the only problems on their radar. If anyone has known these things and, following his public unveiling, decided that they now have permission to do something about it, I'm not much interested in hearing their thoughts about activism or liberty. If I wanted sound bites, I would get it straight from the mainstream media's arsehole. Better yet, I would go straight to the same Ye Olde Handbooke of Self-Defeating Activism that they work from.

If this movement turns into another revolution, it will accomplish nothing more than what the empire intended for it: More control, centralised. We don't need a revolution, we need to start thinking for ourselves and living differently. The government has no power that we don't give it, and we don't need to give power to anyone else to solve the problem we created; we need to stop giving our ability away to people who promise to take care of our problems for us.

If we have any hope of accomplishing anything positive with the momentum we have, we have to become a race of self-aware beings: People who can say "I disagree with you and your government", not "My movement disagrees on this issue" or "David Icke said..." or "Plato once wrote...". It's trust of totems and blind agreement with talking heads that got us into this mess and, despite what the fed's handbook says, we're not going to solve anything with more of the same.

To say that our society is bifurcating is an oversimplification, but it seems clear that two distinct paths will dominate. First we have "our" dying culture. To name it would be to invite lobbyists to subvert yet another idea in favour of the status quo, but I expect we all have a relatively clear sense of what its constituent parts are: Materialism, wilful ignorance, lack of empathy, all symptoms of unchecked fear. It's been inevitable since fear was a thing, but its current form started taking recognisable shape when mass-produced media made it possible for people with money to speak louder than anyone else. Since then it's been maturing at a growing pace, and right now this culture is discovering ways for itself and its participants to die of their own stupidity.

We're past the point where it was getting surreal. Surreal levels of imbecility, broadcast en masse, is the new normal. This is all anyone could really expect from anything that could only flourish where cognitive dissonance is a requirement of participation.

Gaming

Today we'll be focusing on the trends in gaming. If you weren't aware, games are the emerging art form of our times. Somewhere in the range of 90 to 99 percent of everything that's sold in this medium is utter shit. Never has this been more apparent than it is now. I now follow the medium strategically, no longer avidly; letting the news find me. Even from this level it is clearly apparent that the old guard—the money men—are begging to be put out of their misery. The newly-announced PS4 is such a good example that I just had to put in a few words about it. Here are some straight words on the matter from an unbiased source. In this case, unbiased means "not a conspiracy theorist".

Yes, sony have shot themselves in the foot. So painful was their action that it could be felt ahead of time. If some of the things I've heard about windows 8 are any indication, microsoft will guillotine both their own proverbial legs in response to their rival (though it's hard to imagine them making a bigger mess). How this happened, I will attribute to the visible results of the Paris Hilton Effect. To summarise: They are building on foundations that in no way can support the weight they wish to put on it. In this case, the weight is immense. As the second linked article from the Penny Arcade Report points out, sony has no idea what it seeks to accomplish (except profit). So they have turned to this second's buzzword: Social. While there are many eyes—and thus ad revenue—in the world of social, there is not much of anything that matters. Massively expensive viral campaigns come and go before they can make any impact more substantial than a few million "lol"s. It's the weakest of weak foundations, and sony's next gen console is the heaviest single thing I've yet seen placed on it. The crash has not yet happened, but it is already being felt.

The other way

Which leads us to the second path humans can take. Sentient beings have the ability to sense the future, and it's clear that emerging trends are nurturing this ability even in those that do not actively seek it. In truth, I suspect it's not so much an ability to see the future as it is an ability to see the present, along with a projection of consequences. The culture in which we have been immersed is toxic, and it's getting close enough to the end game that human mammals are starting to feel mortally threatened, and our sense of survival are bringing useful abilities to the fore. We live in interesting times. For many this will not be a curse, but an awakening.

From around the net

An anti-piracy company has caused Google to wrongfully remove dozens of Github project URLs. Acting on behalf of a porn company, Takedown Piracy asked the search giant to remove links to several projects including those owned by Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo and openSUSE.

Noah re-formats this ancient tale to describe the basic premise of a new religion, one that has been pushed on the masses for years. Based on the elite’s long-term Agenda of drastically depopulating the Earth, this new religion is about radical environmentalism, the devaluation (and even hatred) of human life, and the re-alignment of morality towards a new axis.

American foreign policy is on par with the Keystone Cops or the Three Stooges. Today, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said ISIS is going to attack America … and the threat is even worse than 9/11. What he forgot to mention is that the U.S. and its allies were the ones who armed and supported the crazies who are now threatening us. For example, we noted in May, before Al Qaeda had re-branded as ISIS

Popcorn Time was one of the most-discussed topics last month with contributors happy to chat and bathe in the publicity. Recently though, something has changed. Previously talkative developers have deleted their work, gone silent, disappeared, or all of the above. It’s hard not to draw the obvious conclusion.

Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms. […] Lean In was created by Sheryl Sandberg an important figure of the power elite. Before becoming the COO of Facebook, she was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. Before that, she was chief of staff for the United States Secretary of the Treasury. More importantly, she is part of the Brookings Institution and the Council of Foreign Relations – two of the most important elite think tanks in the world.

a music video entitled “Shutterbug Time” presents Shutterbug, a ladybug-shaped robotic camera “who keeps an eye out for children who need help”. The resulting video is pure creepy, as it depicts Shutterbug entering children’s rooms, taking pictures of them and sending back that data to a satellite in space.

The Police blocked any access to that camp with security fences and anyone who tried to get close was pushed back. The whole area was surrounded by the Gendarmerie and the access was denied for journalists. […] They were only protesting against the usurpation of the land on which Chevron is trying to start the explorations for shale gas. This land was taken in leasing by Chevron from the mayor of the village. The land got into his possession through illegal exchange made between the village and another village, where the mayor’s wife owned a piece of land. The locals are claiming that the exchange was made eschewing proper regulations.

But a strange torpor of event attends this year’s turning. In the year’s final happenings, nothing seems to happen, and what little does happen seems not to matter. The world sits with frayed nerves and hears a distant noise, which is the cosmic screw of history turning. […] Societies have a way of reaching a consensus about something without ever stating it outright. The American public has silently agreed to sit on its hands though one more Christmas and after that things shake loose.